Constellation cutting back on NYS grape buying

Bad news is making the rounds of grape growers dependent in large part on selling their crops to beverage giant Constellation Brands Inc., the world’s largest wine producer.

Constellation, which has headquarters in Victor, NY, will cut its purchase of thousands of grapes over the next two harvests by local growers.

The reduction became public when the New York State Wine Grape Growers organization said ” … the state’s largest buyer of wine grapes has just informed its contracted growers that it will cut about 5,000 tons of grapes from its intended purchases over the next two harvests.”

The trade group used that announcement to lobby Governor Andrew Cuomo and key legislators to push for legislation to allow the sale of wine in the state’s grocery stores as a means of both improving revenues and offsetting Constellation’s pullback.

New York growers have a contract for 2011 with Constellation for 25,000 tons. Constellation has steadily reduced its purchase of New York grapes in recent years. A decade ago, it bought as much as 40,000 tons of New York grapes.